Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1891 — CUTE THINGS IN CORK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CUTE THINGS IN CORK.

Sugar was unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Queen Victoria was born on May 24j 1819, and succeeded her uncle, William IV., on June 20, 1837. A sealskin coat or robe has been “built” and lined with salite for the Duchess of Portland at a cost of 1,000 guineas. London affords for the use of its 5,000,000 of inhabitants nineteen free public and twenty-five commercial bathing establishments. An attempt is being made in London to form a huge ring for the control of the calico printing business. Many of the largest houses are already pledged to the syndicate. An agnostic is a man who vows he knows nothing, and gets wrathy and vexed with you if you believe him. He says he doesn’t know anything, but he really believes he knows everything. A Philadelphia cable-car, turning a street curve, jolted the “bang” off the forehead of a stylish lady and flung it on the newspaper of a gentleman who was reading of a scalping incident somewhere West.

The national powder mill at St. Medard-en-Jalle, in France, has recently been lighted by incandescent lamps, and it is believed to be the first mill of its class on the Continent to use electric lighting. Edouard Detaille’s great military picture, the finest he has ever painted, depicting a charge of the Fourth French Hussars in 1807, and called “Vive l’Empereur!” is soon to be exhibited in this country. Labouchere says that a woman who stands in a car is a nuisance. The truth of this remark will come home to every man who has been made uncomfortable in his seat by the eye 3 of a woman clinging to a car-strap. JuMMNH; claims in Idaho is dangerous business. A man at Wallace named Harris found three men putting up a cabin on a lot owned by him. They refused to leave, whereupon he got his gun, shot two of them dead and dangerously wounded the third. “I propose to die!” said a man as he entered a Sacramento saloon. “Give me a glass of beer in which to take poison!” „It was handed him, his money dropped into the till, and the barkeeper watched him as he sprinkled in strychnine and drank it off, to die two hours later.

The Earl of Devon became a bankrupt in 1872, owing $3,500,000, most of which was “on honor” or for racing obligations. He paid about half a cent on a dollar and didn’t lose much rest over the balance. As he is dead now his patient creditors may strike a balance and call it square. Henry Williams gave a hack-driver $2 to take him to the depot in Savannah in advance of the ’bus, and he got there just in time to be run over by a horse, smashed under a bill board and trampled on by a, drove of mules. When the ’bus came rolling up he was rolled off to a hospital. A New York club recently gave a dinner to all the principal freaks in the dime museums. Living skeletons, fat women, turtle boys, contortionists, magnetic women, Chinese giants, calfheaded boys, tliree-armed and fourlegged both dined and danced with their ho3ts until a very late hoar. Some years ago Lady Assington philanthropically sent twenty-four English families to the Cape to found an improved colony. She bought land for them, but the result wa3 a failure. The men would not work, but hired Kaffirs instead. Some died of drink, and most of those remaining left for the gold fields.

The Archduke Charles Louis, heir presumptive to the Austrian throne, allows each of his sons fifty florins a month ($83.50) for spending money until they are of age. When they have attained their eighteenth year they are free, and each then can “go the pace” if he so desires, with an income of 20,000 florins a year ($33,400). Beds are quite an innovation in Bussia, and many well-to-do houses are still unprovided with them. Peasants sleep on the tops of their ovens; middle-class people and servants roll themselves up in sheepskins and lie down near stoves; soldiers rest upon wooden cots without bedding; and it is only within the last few years that students in state schools have been allowed beds. Prof. Dara concludes that during the glacial period Long Island Sound, instead of being, as it now is, an arm of the ocean twenty miles wide, was for the greater part of its length a narrow channel serving as a common trunk for many Connecticut streams and a few from Long Island. In these circumstances the supply of fresh water for the Sound river would have been so great that salt water would have barely passed the entrance of the Sound. The lace factories of Kursk and Orley are receiving more orders from France than they can fill. At the late exhibition in Paris the Bussian lece

■was bought with avidity by the French ladies. Since then that lace has become fashionable throughout France. The Russian lace manufacturers indulge in the hope that the demand for their ware will steadily increase; they accordingly enlarge their workshops and engage as many/laborers as they can get. Queen Victoria’s family circle now numbers fifty living descendants, including sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, great grandsons and great granddaughters. Besides these she has four sons-in-law, five grandsons-in-law, and one granddaugh-ter-in-law. The Queen has lost one son, one daughter, five grandsons, one great-grandson, and one son-in-law. If these were living her family circle would number seventy-four.

The magnesium flash-light has been recently used experimentally for night signaling at Pottsdam, Germany, with interesting results. It has been found that even in a snow-laden atmosphere the flash from three grams of magnesium powder was visible at a distance of about forty-six miles. By the addition of a small quantity of strontium, or lithium salts, a red light was produced which could be seen even further than the white flash. A short distance out from Buena Vista, Cal., there is a cave literally swarming with spiders of a curious species of immense size, some having legs four inches in length and a body as large as that of a canary bird. The cave was discovered in December, 1879, and was often resorted to by the pioneers, who obtained the webs for use in place of thread. Early and late the cave constantly resounds with a buzzing noise which is emitted by the spiders while they are weaving their nets. Dr. Kellner, director of a cellulose factory, says the Elektrolechniclies Echo, has succeeded in materially reducing the cost of that article. His method is to put the shredded wool into lead-lined boilers, with a 5 per cent, solution of common salt, which is electrolyzed for three and one-half hours, the nascent chlorine bleaching the wool fiber to a snow-white silky substance. The operation is conducted at a temperature of 126 to 128 degrees, and paper made from the product is of a particularly fine texture.

The fair banjoist has struck a new fad which she proposes to pursue until her instrument is all aglow with fluttering souvenirs. Each one of the silken ribbons displays at one end the monogram of the giver, sometimes embroidered and sometimes stamped in gold. These are frequently presented by the young belle’s masculine friends, thus reversing the order of things—the young woman wearing her admirer’s colors. It is pathetic to watch the embarrassment of the color-blind young man when he discovers that he has presented his lady love with a ribbon as green as the Emerald Isle under the impression that it was a divine blue, which is so symbolic of fidelity.

A London magazine states that before 1840 there were no granite pavements in that city. Wood pavements were used in 1839. Asphalt, which now covers so much of London, was not used until 1869, fifteen years after it was first laid down in Paris. Some years ago, it was found by observations of tho number of falling horses that a horse might be expected to travel 132 miles on granite, 191 on asphalt, and 446 on wood without falling. In wet weather granite is nearly as safe as wood when dry. Asphalt is decidedly the most risky of all, for even when dry the estimate of an increased distance is no more than 223 miles, and when damp and wet, 125 and 192 miles are set down as a limit.

The Worcester Spy relates the following incident; “Among the visitors at the court house yesterday was a snow-white pigeon that alighted on the sill of one of the windows of the clerk’s office. The windsw was opened and the bird calmly walked in with all the confidence of a lawyer. He as calmly walked the whole length of the office, quietly observing everything. Pretty soon, as his acquaintance with the officials increased, he perched himseli upon the desks and later on the shoulders and head of one of the assistants. It was not decided by the officials whether he had a case to try or whether he wished to enter a writ. Anyway, he was placed on a shelf among the ancient deeds. The window was opened, bat the inner atmosphere was more congenial to his excellency, so he stayed.”

One is apt to think that the world has been pretty well ransacked for advertising schemes, and that the supply is liable to run out. Experience proves, however, that the mind of the inventor is practically inexhaustible and breaks out into perennial exhibitions of i.s resources. One of these is the new toy-gun for posting advertisements. The gun is used for shooting advertising arrows into trees, fences, buildings or any inanimate objects. The arrow is feathered with light cardboard of various colors bearing in large type any desired inscription. Two sections of the cardboard and the resultant angles are embraced by a cross slit kerf, the rear of the stick being wound with cord and the point being sharpened to increase penetration. The advertising darts can thus be projected out of ordinary reach, but just high enough not to escape the notice of the passer-by. .

HOW CHILDREN CAN HAVE FUN WITHOUT EXPENSE. The Way to Cut Cork—How to Make a Cork 801 l Dog, a Tight-Rope Walker, and Many Other Thing* of Interest to Children. The decoration of a small box in cork costs but little in labor and nothing in cash, particularly if a system of rosettes be devised, such as is here shown, says a writer in Golden Days. Make a couple of hundred of these carved roundels and glue them on in

two rows, and you will hardly believe the result is your handiwork. “Carved roundels” sounds very artistic, indeed. Perhaps a sketch, showing how the roundels are made, may quell any alarm the phrase may have inspired. Take a few old bottle-corks and cut them like this: Hold your knife at half a right angle as you cut the cross-pieces, and then cut it from the sides, also at half a right angle, and in this way you will produce the “incised work.” If you want four rays, make two cuts across; if you want six, make three in the manner shown by the artist where he has put the knife in. The cork tree is said to be an oak yielding a valuable bark. It may not be inappropriate, therefore, to model

out of cork an other source of- * bark more or less ' worthless, k Try a bulldog, i His body is one f cork: his head is -another; his legs . are four matches: his tail is another --match; his nose, his mouth, his eyes

are made with a red-hot skewer. To stick the head onto the body, use a double-pointed match, and thus give him the power of twisting his head round if you feel so inclined. A comical little fellow is this cork bull dog, and when you get so far as a dozen of them they look very well indeed. Having succeeded with a dog out of cork, try a stork out of cork, or any other bird more or less recognizable. Materials for bird: One bottle-cork

(used), two matches, one hairpin. Average cost, nothing; time, ten minutes. Cut the body first. Cut the head out of one of the body fragments. Stick in the neck; stick on the head with the beak in it; stick on the legs; stick the legs in the stand. Can anything be simpler? Never chop a cork; cut it as if. you were sawing it. Above all, do not use new corks; their roughness is their chief artistic merit. To make a figure that will move, take four sticks for the arms and legs, cut a cork for his body and thrust in his limbs. Cut a round knob out of another cork, mortise in a nose, cut out a mouth, and, with a skewer or hairpin, burn out his eyes and buttons. Then, with a piece of match, fix on his head, and if you can find some feathers, give him a topknot. Cut a nick in the side of his right

foot, and iu his waist fix a couple of table forks. Then stand him on a string sloping from one end of the room to the other, and away he will go as gracefully as any live ropewalker.

A Cunning tub. Alice stood at the window, writhing the falling snow. “What’s that ?” she said, as she caught sight of something up the street. “It’s a dog—a woolly dog,” she cried out. “0, no, us not a dog; it’s a little bear!” It was a little bear cub. It stopped directly in front of the window, and, sitting up, nodded to Alice in the most friendly manner. “Oh. you amusing thing.” she cried. “I’m g ang to feed you.” And opening the window, she tossed out a sweet cracker, which Master Bear snapped up in a moment; then, sitting up. he made another bow, and held out his paw for more. So she gave him another, but just as he was stooping to snap it up he suddenly fell at full length on the snow; and with his forepaws over his eyes, lav perfectly still. “Whv, you poor little fellow, what can be the matter?” said Allie. At the same moment she saw a man coming very fast; he had

a whip. He stopped when he saw* the cub, and snapped the whip. In a moment, Master Bear was sitting up, bowing and offering his paw. Alice was afraid that he would be punished for running away, so she opened the window and said, in a coaxing little voice: “Oh, please don’t whip him; he’s so cunning!” “Well, I won’t, miss, if you. don’t want me to,” said the man. “Come, Ned!” Ned understood by the tone of his master’s voice that he was not to be punished; he immediately got up and clasped his paws around his master’s leg and hugged him tight. “That’s the way he always does when we wake up.” said the man. —Annie L. Hannah, in Little Men and Women.

CUT CORKS.

BULL DOG.

THE WAY TO CUT THEM.

A CORK TIGHT-ROPE WALKER.